


Meet the Ambassador

by Doug48



Series: Zoo 1.1 [6]
Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Drama, F/M, No Smut, Police
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-02
Updated: 2018-08-05
Packaged: 2019-06-20 10:35:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15532374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doug48/pseuds/Doug48
Summary: Just another couple of days at work for Officer Hopps and the other cops





	1. Before lunch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another day on the job in the ZPD, but now Judy has a partner

It’s another morning in Zootopia. Night mammals are ending their activities and day mammals are starting theirs. At the Zootopian Police Department (ZPD), it’s the start of the first shift and end of the third shift, and that means another 0830 briefing by Chief Bogo. 

The chief is a water buffalo, one of the larger “prey” type mammals in the city. Zootopia is divided into predator and prey; and large, medium, and small mammals. Half are male and half are female. All are bipedal, tool using, and clothes wearing. In the case of the police, that means blue uniforms, at least while on duty. 

Officer Judy Hopps, the first rabbit officer in the ZPD was among the twenty officers in the so-called Bull Pen when Bogo walked in precisely on time. He was greeted with the usual hooting by the mostly large mammals, and, also as usual, he told everyone to sit down and shut up. 

Officer Hopps had obeyed the command to sit down only on her first day. Today she remained standing on her over large chair so she could see the chief and he could see her face rather than just the tops of her ears. Most of the ZPD furniture was designed for large mammals like lions, tigers, bears, buffalo, elephants, and the like. Hopps was one of the smaller medium mammals and was expected to simply make do. Which she did. Wolves had similar, but less, problems, and there were no officers smaller than a rabbit. 

“First item on the agenda. Some of you may have noticed that officer Hopps is back with us after recovering from her injuries received while participating in the investigation and arrest of former mayor Bellweather. I would say some thing nice, but really, I just don’t care,” the buffalo said, in the usual way. 

Judy had learned how to interpret the chief’s words. ‘I just don’t care’ didn’t mean he didn’t care. It just meant he didn’t want to discuss it. 

“Second item. We’ve apparently got a VIP / Distinguished guest coming into town and we’ve been asked to supply six officers to help with various low level security concerns. Two of those have already been assigned from third shift, and two from afternoon shift as well. So that means two of you will also be assigned. In this case, Officers McDermitt and Hopps. Sergeant Bambi from second shift will be in charge. You’ll report to him." When he said this, he looked at McDermitt and then Hopps. Hopps nodded eagerly and McDermitt only nodded. 

“Right. You know what to do. Dismissed,” the chief concluded, ten minutes later. The officers all headed out and Hopps went to see McDermitt to find out where to report. “Have you done this before?” she asked him. 

“Yes, rookie, I’ve done it before,” the wolf replied, with a notable lack of enthusiasm. 

Hopps followed as the wolf went to Officer Hyde and picked up the assignment booklet. Hyde is a hippo and he was always near the chief during morning briefings. Sometimes the chief passed out booklets, but sometimes it was Hyde. 

Hopps decided not to feel offended by McDem’s manner. ‘He probably didn’t get enough sleep,’ she thought. 

She became more and more sure of that as she followed him while they first prepared for their assignment and then left Precinct One for the VIP’s hotel. They took McDerm’s squad car and he drove, refusing several attempts at conversation by Hopps. ‘I wish Nick was here,’ Judy thought for the first time today, but she knew it wouldn’t be the last. Nick had participated in the same investigation and arrest of Bellweather that Hopps had, but Nick had not been injured, and he wasn’t a cop. Not yet anyway. Nick Wilde is a fox and is scheduled to enter the police academy soon. Judy was certain that Nick will make an exceptional police mammal. 

They pull into the hotel parking lot, and Hopps exits the cruisier with her usual speed and eagerness to get to work, but McDerm clearly has other ideas. He closes his door and walks around the car to Hopps’ side. 

“Wait a minute, Hopps. Don’t go rushing in there just yet because we need to get a few things clear. You may have participated in some high profile arrests, but that doesn’t mean you know everything. I’m more experienced, so I’m in charge. You say nothing and do nothing without my permission, got that?” As he said this, the wolf got very close to the rabbit and made a point of staring down at her. 

Hopps didn’t move back, so they ended up almost touching noses. McDermitt expected to see the rabbit’s nose twitch in fear, but it didn’t. He also expected to smell her fear, but was again disappointed. She just stood her ground and looked back at him. 

“That’s clear, sir. I am junior and you’re in charge.” Her ears were behind her head, but if she was intimidated by the wolf, it wasn’t apparent. 

“Fine. Follow me,” McDermitt said. He had backed up slightly and now he turned and walked toward the front of the hotel. 

Hopps closed her car door and followed. Sighing. ‘Going to be a long day,’ she thought.

They found Bambi in the lobby and the deer motioned them over. “Hopps and McDermit from first shift?” The wolf’s ears flicked slightly when the sergeant addressed Hopps first, as if she was senior, but they both nodded and Bambi continued. “Come with me.”

They followed Bambi and found themselves in a room with four seated ZPD officers. All were in uniform and all of them were more or less familiar with each other. 

“Hopps! Glad the chief picked you for this!” Another wolf said, as Hopps and McDermitt found seats in the second row. Judy remembered this wolf from his time on first shift. 

“Glad to be here, Wolford. You know what’s going on?” The rabbit asked, standing in her seat and more or less ignoring the seated and scowling McDermitt. 

“Nah. They’ll tell us eventually, I’m sure,” Wolford replied, also ignoring McDermitt. 

A civilian panther came in and asked the assembled officers to be seated. Wolford winked at Hopps before turning to face the civilian in the front of the room. 

“Good morning,” the panther said. “My name is Lee, and I am the personal assistant to Ambassador Wiles. I am going to assume that none of you know anything about the ambassador or why you’re here beyond the usual ‘we were told to come here’ story that I have come to expect from officers such as yourselves.”

“The ambassador and I are from Nova Ferocia, which is an independent city state similar to your city of Zootopia, but of course we’re mostly predator while you’re mostly prey. I won’t go into the precise reason for our visit to your fair city, but I will say we believe it’s important enough to draw the six of you away from your usual duties and put you to work assisting our usual security detail. That detail is perfectly capable of handling most threats, but the ambassador wanted to have some local involvement and so you were requested.”

Hopps saw several officers shift uncomfortably in their chairs and heard McDermitt mutter “jerk” under his breath when the personal assistant used the word ‘local.’ 

The word did seem to imply a certain inferiority to Hopps, but she saw no reason to be offended. ‘As the locals, we know more about the local situation. Surely they can see that,’ she thought. 

The briefing continued and various additional information was supplied. The ambassador was a female coyote and not actually in town yet. Arrival would be later. Special radios would be supplied by Nova Ferocia to the ZPD officers during the visit. The radios were secure, but the ZPD officers were told they could use standard police codes. All six ZPD officers were assigned a letter designator. McDermitt would be “mike” and Hopps would be “bravo.” Judy wondered, briefly, if it was B for Bunny, but decided it didn’t really mater. 

There were a host of other details, including where they would be stationed and what sort of threats (none) were expected. They were told to familiarize themselves with the hotel layout and SOP as soon as possible. 

Bambi reminded everyone, after the civilian had left, that one or the other officer must be on duty at all times. “That’s why there are two of you, after all. Don’t both of you use the bathroom or go to lunch at the same time.”

“We’ll be on duty here in the lobby, but I want all of you to become familiar with the various stairwells and exits of this hotel before your shift. Officers Hopps and McDermitt, your shift is now, but the ambassador won’t be here for another couple of hours, so you should use that time familiarizing yourselves with the SOP,” Bambi said. Then the deer gave everyone their new radios.

Hopps went immediately to work, and they split up when Hopps took the first elevator to the top floor while McDermitt excused himself to use the restroom. Hopps didn’t see him again until noon when they were both summoned by Bambi to the lobby. The rabbit had seen most of the hotel by that time. 

“The ambassador should be here anytime,” Bambi said. 

As it turned out, they didn’t see her. Her car apparently entered the covered garage that Hopps had noticed during her tour. 

McDermitt wandered around the hotel until Bambi left at 1 PM and then the wolf sat on one of the couches in the waiting area. 

“What are you doing?”” Hopps asked. 

“What’s it look like?” the wolf replied. “Why don’t you take lunch now and then I’ll go when you get back? Don’t take over 30 minutes.”

“OK,” Judy replied and then walked across the street to a café she had seen. She knew she could still see the front of the hotel if she got a table outside, so that’s what she did. She got a surprise when she left the café with her salad and took at seat at the table she wanted.


	2. Lunch and afternoon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, what happens next?

“Nick? What are you doing here?” Judy asks. 

“Hey, Carrots. Just, you know, having lunch. Across from the hotel they got you guarding. Some VIP apparently coming to town?” The fox asked, trying to sound innocent. 

“I can’t talk about that. It’s all very hush hush. And how do you know anyway?”

“Well, I did tell you that I know everyone, and I do. These people know things like who’s here from Nova and which cops were assigned to play nurse maid,” the fox said. He took a bite out of his soy burger and leaned back in his chair. He was, of course, wearing his usual tie, tacky shirt, and slacks. Same old Nick. “You don’t want me to leave, do you?”

“No, you can stay, but don’t hang around too close. This is not the missing mammals case and I’ve got a partner for this already. He's a wolf named McDermitt.”

“Oh yeah, real go-getter, is McD,” Nick smirked and rolled his eyes. 

Judy, deciding to take this at face value, replied. “Not that I’ve noticed yet.”

She said it in such a way that Nick wondered, again, if Judy was really as unaware of sarcasm as she seemed. ‘Nah, that’s impossible,’ he thought. He looks away from her and sees something across the streeet. 

“Ah, Carrots, do you know if the VIP is expecting more help arriving right about now? I’m asking because those four,” now he gestures with his muzzle at two pairs of mammals across the street, “seem to be armed and are definitely going to enter the hotel.”

“The two wolves on the right by that red van?”

“And a couple tigers, but they went in already,” the fox replies. 

“Why do you think they’re armed? And I’m not sure how many guards she has, or who's coming or going. They didn’t tell us.”

“I’ve met a great many shady characters in my time," Nick says. "Those four have ‘don’t mess with me or I’ll shoot you’ written all over their body language.”

Judy got up and Nick started to follow, but she said, “Stay here. If they are armed and unfriendly, you need to stay out of whatever happens. The ambassador's guards don’t know you, and everyone knows there are no foxes in the ZPD. They’ll see you as hostile.”

Nick looked unhappy, but he nodded and sat back down. Judy turned to look at the hotel again and saw one of the wolves going in the front entrance to the hotel. She activated her radio. 

“This is Bravo. I have a possible 10-32. I am currently outside and I saw several mammals near the front entrance and at least one of them entered the hotel,” she said, and released the talk button.

There was no acknowledgement.

“What the cheese and crackers?” Judy wondered out loud. McDermitt should have acknowledged, at least, or that civilian aide. He was supposed to be monitoring this frequency. 

Judy crossed the street quickly, dodging between cars. Nick waited until she was out of sight and then got up and walked quickly to the street corner. He would cross more slowly. There was no way he would stay out of this, even though Judy had made some good points. 

Officer Hopps dashed into the lobby looking for McDermitt and found him reading a magazine on the same sofa where she left him. 

“Where are they?” she asked him. 

“Where are who? What are you talking about?”

“Didn’t you hear the radio? Possible armed intruders entering the hotel through the lobby, right over there,” Hopps said, and gestured toward the front doors by tilting her ears that direction. Hopps had realized McDermitt didn’t have his radio on, so she deliberately implied that someone else sent the message. She hoped this might get a better response if he really did have something against her personally. Or maybe he just doesn’t like rabbits? 

“Where?” He grabbed his radio and quickly turned it on. Then he got up, and looked around. 

“I don’t see them now, but there were probably four of them. Two wolves and two tigers. I saw one of the wolves come in that door over there,” Hopps said, gesturing again. She knew McDermitt hadn’t been paying any attention to his surroundings and could not figure out why. 

“What are we supposed to do in this situation?” the wolf asked. His body language was very tense and he was resting one hand on the butt of his holstered stun gun. “Check the stair wells?”

“SOP for this involves us reporting what we see and then getting confirmation from higher. At least one of us must remain here at all times, so that means either you or I need to go check on the ambassador in person. Not getting confirmation implies all sorts of bad things.”

“Right. You go check. I’ll stay here. You saw these mammals, and I didn’t. if I go, I might run into them, and that might not go well. You, at least, will be prepared,” McDermitt said, sounding a little more sure of himself. Hopps heard his heart beat steady out somewhat when he made the decision. 

Judy nodded and started to leave before adding, “if you see a red fox, he’s probably a friend.” McDermitt seemed puzzled, but nodded, so she headed for the stairs at a fast walk. SOP didn’t say which staircase to use in this situation and didn’t forbid the elevators, but Hopps thought she was more likely to see, or hear, something useful on the stairs rather than on an elevator. Besides, they might be on a different elevator car and be going down as she went up. This way, if they were going down in this stairwell or going up slowly enough, she’d hear them long before they heard or saw her. 

She made it to the correct floor, fifteen, without incident. She was alone in the stairwell. No heart beats, and no movement. She rested a minute, checked her weapon and put it back in the holster, and then stepped out into the hallway trying to look unconcerned. 

The guard was still there outside the door. Hopps walked up to him, he saw her, and then nodded. 

“Hey, rabbit,” the bobcat said. Like most Nova personnel, he was a predator, but only slightly larger than Judy and she felt no animosity from him. 

“Hey, Whiskey,” she replied, using his code name. 

The 'cat looked at her a little differently, and replied. “Oh, yeah. You’re Bravo, right?”

“Yes. I came to check on you after I saw several armed mammals enter the hotel about 20 minutes ago. I called it in, but there was no reply.” 

“We heard you. SOP is to report and then go to alternate channel one when you see something suspicious. I heard the boss,” and he pointed over his shoulder toward the door behind him, “acknowledge on the other channel, but then you didn’t say anything else. You didn’t get the message?”

“The SOP says nothing about going to an alternate channel automatically. The net administrator, your boss, is supposed to tell every station to change. He didn’t, so we didn’t get the message,” the Zootopian cop replied. 

“OK,” the guard turned and knocked on the door. The civilian from earlier opened it and looked at Officer Hopps. She saw two armed guards standing in the room past him as if they had recently arrived. Both were tigers and could easily be the armed mammals that Nick had seen earlier. 

“Sir, we have a problem with the SOP. The one I got says you’ll tell us when to change channels. Whiskey says it’s automatic.” The rabbit pulled out her memo and handed it over. 

“Yes, yes. We’ll have to fix that. Clearly that’s why you didn’t reply,” the panther said, handing back Judy’s memo. “By the way, those four mammals you saw work for us. We didn’t mention them because we wanted to know how observant you were. Good job. Now, please heard back to the lobby. Oh, and go to alternate one. Good day.” Then he closed the door. 

Judy simply nodded at the guard, switched her radio, and walked toward the elevator. She let McDermitt know to go to alternate one, and sent a text to Nick, ‘it was nothing.’  
McDermitt went to lunch and then came back. He and Hopps circulated around the hotel lobby until Bambi came back. 

The other second shift cop, this one a doe, or female deer, nodded at Bambi and walked away when she saw Hopps and her partner. Bambi looked at them. 

“Right. You two will report to Bogo at Precinct One in the morning at the usual time. Don’t come back here tomorrow unless the chief says. You’re dismissed for today, so take the car back to HQ.”

“Yes, sergeant,” Judy said, with her usual enthusiasm. 

“Yeah,” McDermitt said. Judy saw Bambi scowl, but he didn’t make an issue of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not super happy with my own writing here. However, I've had this story a year or so and I wanted to TELL it, not hold onto it until it was perfect.


	3. Debriefings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Various mammals talking to each other.

Judy met Nick again after work, but this time it was at a diner closer to Precinct One. 

“So, what happened? Your text said it was nothing?” Nick asked. 

“I think it was some kind of test. Those armed mammals you pointed out to me? They’re Nova personnel. Possibly they wanted to know if the ZPD would notice them. And we didn’t. You did,” the rabbit replied, sounding annoyed.

“Hey, I want to be ZPD personnel, and you already are. You believed me when I told you, but you didn’t see all four of them, did you?” Nick replied.

“No, just the wolves. Then I saw a couple of new tigers in the ambassador’s room. They were the other members of the quartet.”

“McDermitt didn’t see anything?”

“Nope. Had his radio off and was reading a magazine on a couch the whole time. While I was at lunch!” Judy replied, ears up, and sounding angry. If Nick had to describe her scent, he would call it ‘righteous indignation,’ or something similar. 

“Going to tell Bambi about McD's lack of usefulness?”

“No,” Judy replied, looking and sounding less angry. “Everyone makes mistakes.”

“Yeah,” the fox replied, trying not to think about his first meeting with the rabbit. 

“Where were you when I texted, by the way? I remember I told you to stay at the café,” Judy said, as she very deliberately took a drink of decaf coffee. 

“At the café?” Nick replied, sounding uncertain. 

“Try again. I looked out the window and the table where we were was occupied by someone else. Please tell me you were not behind the hotel with a weapon? That would have been really stupid if the ambassador had decided to leave in that direction and his guards saw you.”

“I know that,” Nick replied. Then he stroked his chin and looked away. “I wasn’t behind the hotel, and I certainly didn’t display any weapon. I was inside the hotel. Only to observe, of course, because, as you said, I’m not on the team and not known to the members of the team.” 

Judy could see by his body language that he was probably liing about all or part of that statement. On the other paw, she could hear his heart rate, and it was as steady as usual. 'He's a con-mammal, and so he's very good at liing,' she told herself. 

“OK. I’m glad,” she said, and then thought, ‘I’ll have to figure out his baseline.’

They ate dinner and then went to the bus stop. Each would be going their separate ways. Nick wondered what it would be like to take the same bus and just go home with her? Wouldn’t be strange, not to him, but maybe to others?

‘I’m a four foot tall fox and she’s a three foot bunny. With her ears up, she is nearly my height, but she’s prey and I’m a predator,’ he thought. ‘And she’s female and I’m male,’ he replied to himself, yet again. He’d been thinking about this since the day after they had spent a night together. That had been right after the Nighthowler thing and the doctors had not wanted her to be alone, at least not that first night. He had slept on the floor, of course. 

He got on the bus that took him back to his apartment and watched Judy waiting for her bus. She looked up and waved just as his bus pulled away. He waved back. 

 

Officer Hopps knocked on the chief’s office door the next morning. “Bambi said you wanted to see me?”

“Come in and close the door, Hopps. Take a seat,” the buffalo said. 

The morning briefing had been uneventful, and Hopps saw Bogo talking to McDermitt immediately after. Hopps waited an appropriate amount of time after Bogo was done, and then went to his office. She knew he didn’t like to have mammals bother him too soon after the morning briefings, but she still wasn’t sure why.

Judy closed the door and jumped up on one of the chairs, facing Bogo across his desk. She noticed the other occupant of the office. It was the panther from yesterday. 

“Officer Hopps. I believe you know Mr. Lee, the ambassador’s personal assistant?” Hopps nodded and Bogo continued. “Mr. Lee has been discussing various events from yesterday and some of them concern you.”

The big cat looked at the rabbit. “I was very impressed with your performance yesterday and I have so informed her excellency, the ambassador. You saw the guards come in and then followed procedures perfectly as far as you knew them, even including checking on the ambassador’s room. We knew about the SOP problem, of course. We wanted to know how you would react.”

Hopps looked at her chief, wondering if he knew. He seemed very calm, so he probably did know. 

However, there was still a problem. “How I would react, sir? Isn’t that too great a risk for you to take? I mean, something could have actually happened and the only ZPD contacts you had at the time, McDermitt and I, were totally out of the loop. Also, in the interest of full disclosure, I didn’t see the armed mammals. That was my lunch companion, Mr. Wilde.” 

“Well, taking your concerns one at a time. The ambassador was never in any danger, and could not be in danger, because she was never here.”

“What? We were told that her car arrived around noon!” Judy replied, indignantly. 

“Did you see the car?” The panther replied, looking smug. 

“Well, no…”

Now the buffalo spoke. “McDermitt apparently didn’t tell you what he told Bambi, who told me. He looked in the parking area and did not see an official limo. Those things are distinctive. We thought you knew because he told you. Clearly he did not, and so you and I will be discussing that later.”

“Yes, chief,” the rabbit replied. 

“As for the other matter. We also know about Mr. Wilde. Kind of a local celebrity, isn’t he? Soon to be the first fox in the ZPD. Should enter the academy in a few weeks. Fascinating background….” The panther said. “Ahem. Anyway, so the ambassador wants to talk to him as well. You, officer Hopps, are fully approved the be part of any future protection detail. You’ll have to correct SOP next time, I assure you!” 

“Well, that’s really all that I had to say. Chief, you’ll be hearing from us again some time soon with various official documents. Officer Hopps, you can tell Wilde that we’ll be in touch with him as well. Good day,” the panther said, collected his hat, and walked out, having nodded to the chief. 

“So, Hopps. Please tell me how it is that Wilde just happened to be there to have lunch with you? You didn’t call him, did you?” The chief asked. His voice was mild, but his eyes were intent. Judy never even considered liing to him. 

“He just.. showed up. I asked him the same thing. He said he knows people and I’m the only bunny cop, so tracking me isn’t difficult. It wasn’t really an answer, but I thought it was the best I was going to get. Then he saw those armed mammals and I kind of forgot all about it.”

“What I figured,” the chief said. “For your information, I had been thinking about putting you with McDermitt as a partner, but now I realize that won’t work. Why do you think he didn't tell you about the missing limo?”

“I don't know. We had had a bit of a tiff previously and I might have been a bit harsh with him, so he might have been afraid to speculate with me about the car. Or the lack of car, in this case.”

“This tiff. It would not have been because he had his radio off, would it?”

“No, but I wasn’t very happy about that either. Ah. How did you know?”

“You mean because his partner, you in other words, did not inform his supervisor? It’s very simple. Those radios track everything, including when they’re on and off and where, precisely, they’re located at any given time. We know where you had lunch and we know which couch McDermitt rested on while you were away,” Bogo’s manner was mild, as if only discussing something minor, but Hopps knew it wasn’t. McDermitt might come to regret that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it. Just three chapters. I had the whole thing in one long chapter, but this is probably better. I've got other stories, including one with Judy after Nick is at the academy, and then I could easily make up a few after he gets out [including the ambassador showing up].

**Author's Note:**

> So, I'm working on having more and better descriptions.


End file.
